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PRESIDENT JACKSON'S 



PROCLAMATION 



AGAINST THE 



Nullification Ordinance 



OF 



SOUTH CAMOIIbINA, 



DECEMBER 11, 1833. 



•i# 



V 






PROCLAMATION. 



Whereas, a Convention, assembled in the State of South Caro- 
lina, have passed an ordinance, by which they declare, " That the 
several acts and parts of acts of the Congress of the United States, 
purporting to be laws for the imposing of duties and imposts on the 
importation of foreign commodities, and now having actual ope- 
ration and effect within the United States, and more especially," 
two acts for the same purposes, passed on the !29th of May, 1828, 
and on the 14th of July, 1832, "are unauthorized by the Constitu- 
tion of the United States, and violate the true meaning and intent 
thereof, and are null and void, and no law," nor binding on the 
citizens of that State, or its officers: and by the said ordinance it 
is further declared to be unlaAvful for any of the constituted autho- 
rities of the State, or of the United States, to enforce the payment 
of the duties imposed by the said acts within the same State, and 
that it is the duty of the Legislature to pass such laws as may be 
necessary to give full effect to the said ordinance : 

And ivhereas, by the said ordinance, it is further ordained, that, 
in no case of law or equity, decided in the Courts of said State, 
wherein shall be drawn in ([uestion the validity of the said ordi- 
nance, or of the acts of the Legislature that may be passed to give 
it effect, or of the said laws of the United States, no appeal shall 
be allowed to the Supreme Court of the United States, nor shall 
any copy of the record be permitted or allowed for that pur- 
pose, and that any person attempting to take such appeal shall b^' 
punished as for a contempt of Court : 

And finally, the said ordinance declares, that the people of South 
Carolina will maintain the said ordinance at every hazard; and 
that they will consider the passage of any act by Congress abolish- 
ing or closing the ports of the said State, or otherwise obstructing 
the free ingress or egress of vessels to and from the said ports, or 
any other act of the Federal Government to coerce the State, shut 
up her ports, destroy or harass her commerce, or to enforce the 
said acts otherwise than through the civil tribunals of the country, 
as inconsistent with the longer continuance of South Carolina in 
the Union ; and that the people of the said State will thenceforth ^. 
hold themselves absolved from all further obligation to maintain or 
preserve their political connection with the people of the other 



V 



PRESIDENT JACKSON S PROCLAMATION. 



States, and will forthwith proceed to organize a separate Govern- 
ment, and do all other acts and things which sovereign and inde- 
pendent States may of right do : 

And whereas, the said ordinance prescribes to the people of South 
Carolina a course of conduct, in direct violation of their duty as 
citizens of the United States, contrary to the laws of their country, 
subversive of its Constitution, and having for its object the destruc- 
tion of the Union — that Union which, coeval with our political 
existence, led our fathers, without any other ties to unite them than 
those of patriotism and a common cause, through a sanguinary 
struggle to a glorious independence — that sacred Union, hitherto 
inviolate, which, perfected by our happy Constitution, has brought 
us, by the favor of Heaven, to a state of prosperity at home, and 
high consideration abroad, rarely if ever, equaled in the history of 
nations : To preserve this bond of our political existence from 
destruction, to maintain inviolate this state of national honor and 
prosperity, and to justify the confidence my fellow-citizens have 
reposed in me, I, Andrew Jackson, President of the United States, 
have thought proper to issue this my proclamation, stating my 
views of the Constitution and laws applicable to the measures 
adopted by the Convention of South Carolina, and to the reasons 
they have put forth to sustain them, declaring the course which 
duty will require me to pursue, and, appealing to the understand- 
ing and patriotism of the people, warn them of the consequences 
that must inevitably result from an observance of the dictates of "the 
Convention. 

Strict duty would require of me nothing more than the exercise 
of those powers with which I am now, or may hereafter be invested, 
for preserving the peace of the Union and for the execution of the 
laws. But the imposing aspect which opposition has assumed in 
this case, by clothing itself with State authority, and the deep inte- 
rest which the people of the United States must all feel in prevent- 
ing a resort to stronger measures, while there is a hope that any- 
thing will be yielded to reasoning and remonstration, perhaps 
demand, and will certainly justify, a full exposition, to South Caro- 
lina and the nation, of the views I entertain of this important ques- 
tion, as well as a distinct enunciation of the course which my sense 
of duty will require me to pursue. 

The ordinance is founded, not on the indefeasible right of resist- 
ing acts which are plainly unconstitutional and too oppressive to be 
endured ; but on the strange position that any one State may not 
only declare an act of Congress void, but prohibit its execution ; 
that they may do this consistently with the Constitution ; that the 
true construction of that instrument permits a State to retain its 
*place in the Union, and yet be bound by no other of its laws than 
those it may choose to consider as constitutional. It is true, they 
add that, to justify this abrogation of a law, it must be palpably 



PRESIDENT JACKSON S PROCLAMATION. O 

contrary to the Constitution ; but it is evident, that to give the 
right of resisting laws of that description, coupled with the uncon- 
trolled right to decide what laws deserve that character, is to give 
the power of resisting all laws. For, as by the theory, there is no 
appeal, the reasons alleged by the State, good or bad, must prevail. 
If it should be said that public opinion is a sufficient check against 
the abuse of this power, it may be asked why it is not deemed a 
sufficient guard against the passage of an unconstitutional act by 
Congress. There is, however, a restraint in this last case, which 
makes the assumed power of a State more indefensible, and which 
does not exist in the other. There are two appeals from an uncon- 
stitutional act passed by Congress — one to the judiciaiy, the other 
to the people and the States. There is no appeal from the State 
decision in theory, and the practical illustration shows that the 
Courts are closed against an application to review it, both judges 
and jurors being sworn to decide in its favor. But reasoning on 
this subject is superfluous when our social compact in express 
terms declares, that the laws of the United States, its Constitution 
and treaties made under it, are the Supreme law of the land — and 
for greater caution adds, " that the judges in every State shall 
be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws of any 
State to the contrary notwithstanding." And it may be asserted, 
"without fear of refutation, that no federative government could 
exist without a similar provision. Look for a moment to the con- 
sequences. If South Carolina considers the revenue laws uncon- 
stitutional, and has a right to prevent their execution in the port 
of Charleston, there would be a clear constitutional objection to 
their collection in every other port, and no revenue could be col- 
lected anywhere, for all imposts must be equal. It is no answer 
to repeat, that an unconstitutional law is no law, so long as the 
question of its legality is to be decided by the State itself; for 
every law operating injuriously upon any local interest will be, per- 
haps, thought, and certainly represented, as unconstitutional, and 
has been shown, there is no appeal. 

If this doctrine had been establish at an earlier day, the Union 
would have been dissolved in its infancy. The excise law in Penn- 
sylvania, the embargo and • non-intercourse law in the Eastern 
States, the carriage tax in Virginia, were all deemed unconstitu- 
tional, and were more unequal in their operation than any of the 
laws now complained of ; but fortunately none of those States dis- 
covered that they had the right now claimed by South Carolina. 
The war into which we were forced, to support the dignity of the 
nation and the rights of our citizens, might have ended in defeat 
and disgrace, instead of victory and honor, if the States who sup-^ 
posed it a ruinous and unconstitutional measure, had thought they 
possessed the right of nullifying the act by which it was declared, 
and denying supplies for its prosecution. Hardly and unequally 



b PRESIDENT JACKSON S PROCLAMATION. 

as those measures bore upon several members of the Union, to the 
Legislatures, of none did this efficient and peaceable remedy, as it is 
called, suggest itself. The discovery of this important feature in 
our Constitution was reserved for the present day. To the states- 
men of South Carolina belongs the invention, and upon the citi- 
zens of that State will unfortunately fall the evils of reducing it to 
practice. 

If the doctrine of a State veto upon the laws of the Union car- 
ries with it internal evidence of its impracticable absurdity, our 
constitutional history will also afford abundant proof that it w^ould 
have been repudiated with indignation had it been proposed to form 
a feature in our government. 

In our colonial state, although dependent on another power, we 
very early considered ourselves as connected by common interest 
with each other. Leagues were formed for common defence, and 
before the Declaration of Independence, we were known, in our 
aggregate character, as the United Colonies of America. That 
decisive and important step was taken jointly. We declared our- 
selves a nation by a joint, not by several acts, and when the terms 
of our confederation were reduced to form, it was in that of a 
solemn league of several States, by which they agreed that they 
[would, collectively form one nation, for the purpose of conducting 
Ipome certain domestic concerns and all foreign relations. In the 
instrument forming that Union, is found an article which declares 
that " every State shall abide by the determination of Congress, 
on all questions which by that confederation shall be submitted to 
them." 

Under the Confederation then, no State could legally annul a 
decison of the Congress, or refuse to submit to its execution ; but 
no provision was made to enforce these decisions. Congress made 
i;equisitions, but they were not complied with. The government 
could not operate on individuals. They had no judiciary, no means 
of collecting revenue. 

But the defects of the Confederation need not be detailed. 
Under its operation we could scarcely be called a nation. We 
had neither prosperity at home nor consideration abroad. This 
state of things could not be endured, and our present happy Con- 
stitution was formed, but formed in vain, if this fatal doctrine pre- 
vails. It was formed for important objects that are announced in 
the preamble, made in the name and by the authority of the people 
of the United States, whose delegates framed, and whose conven- 
tions approved it. The most important among these objects, that 
which is placed first in rank, on which all the others rest, is " to 
form a more perfect Union." Now, is it possible that even if there 
were no express provisions giving supremacy to the Constitution 
and laws of the United States over those of the States — can it be 
conceived that an instrument made for the purpose of " forming a 



PRESIDENT JACKSON S PROCLAMATION. 7 

more perfect Union" than that of the Confederation, could be so 
constructed by the assembled wisdom of our country as to substi- 
tute for that confederation a form of government dependent for its 
existence on the local interest, the party spirit of a State, or of a 
prevailing faction in a State ? Every man of plain unsophisticated 
understanding, who hears the question, will give such an answer as 
will preserve the Union. Metaphysical subtlety, in pursuit of an 
impracticable theory could, alone, have devised one that is calcu- 
lated to destroy it. 

I consider, then, the power to annul a law of the United States, 
assumed by one State, incompatible with the existence of the Union, 
contradicted expressly by the letter of the Constitution, unautho- 
rized by its spirit, inconsistent with every principle on which it was 
founded, and destructive of the great object for which it was 
formed. 

After this general view of the leading principle, we must 
examine the particular application of it Avhich is made in the ordi- 
nance. 

The preamble rests its justification on these grounds ; it assumes 
as a fact, that the obnoxious laws, although they purport to be 
laws for raising revenue, were in reality intended for the protection 
of manufactures, which purpose it asserts to be unconstitutional ; 
that the operation of these laws is unequal ; that the amount raised 
by them is greater than is required by the wants of the govern- 
ment ; and finally, that the proceeds are to be applied to objects 
unauthorized by the Constitution. These are the only causes 
alleged to justify an open opposition to the laws of the country, 
and a threat of seceding from the Union, if any attempt should be 
made to enforce them. The first virtually acknowledges that the 
law in question was passed under a power expressly given by the 
Constitution, to lay and collect imposts ; but its constitutionality 
is draAvn in question from the motives of those who passed it. How- 
ever apparent this purpose may be in the present case, nothing can 
be more dangerous than to admit the position that an unconstitu- 
tional purpose, entertained by the members Avho assent to a law 
enacted under a constitutional power, shall make that law void ; 
for how is that purpose to. be ascertained ? Who is to make the 
scrutiny ? How often may bad purposes be falsely imputed ? In 
how many cases are they concealed by false professions ? In how 
many is no declaration of motive made? Admit this doctrine, and 
you give to the States an uncontrolled right to decide, and every 
law may be annulled under this pretext. If, therefore, the absurd 
and dangerous doctrine should be admitted, that a State may 
annul an unconstitutional law, or one that it deems such, it will 
not apply to the present case. 

The next objection is, that the laws in question operate un- 
etpally. This objection m;iy be made Avith truth to every law that 



"8 PRESIDENT JACKSON'S PROCLAMATION. 

has been or can be passed. The wisdom of man never yet con" 
trived a system of taxation that Avould operate with perfect 
equahty. If the unequal operation of a law makes it unconsti- 
tutional, and if all laws of that description may be abrogated by 
any State for that cause, then indeed is the Federal Constitution 
unworthy of the slightest effort for its preservation. We have 
hitherto relied on it as the perpetual bond of our Union. We 
have received it as the work of the assembled wisdom of the nation. 
lYe have trusted to it as to the sheet-anchor of our safety in the 
stormy times of conflict with a foreign or domestic foe. We have 
looked on it with sacred awe as the paladium of our liberties, and 
•with all the solemnities of religion, have pledged to each other our 
lives and fortunes here, and our hopes of happiness hereafter, in 
its defence and support. Were we mistaken, my countrymen, in 
attaching this importance to the Constitution of our country ? Was 
our devotion paid to the wretched, inefficient, clumsy contrivance 
which this new doctrine would make it ? Did we pledge ourselves 
to the support of an airy nothing, a bubble that must be blown away 
by the first breath of disaffection ? Was this self-destroying, 
visionary theory, the work of the profound statesmen, the exalted 
patriots, to whom the task of constitutional reform was intrusted ? 
Did the name of Washington sanction, did the States deliberately 
ratify such an anomaly in the history of fundamental legislation ? 
Ko, We were not mistaken. The letter of this great instrument 
is free from this radical fault ; its language directly contradicts 
the imputation ; its spirit — its evident intent contradicts it. No, 
we do not err ! Our Constitution does not contain the absurdity 
of giving power to make laws, and another power to resist them. 
The sages, whose memory will always be reverenced, have given 
us a practical, and, as they hoped, a permanent constitutional com- 
pact. The father of his country did not affix his revered name to 
so palpable an absurdity. Nor did the States, when they seve- 
rally ratified it, do so under the impression that a veto on the laws 
of the United States was reserved to them, or that they could exer- 
cise it by implication. Search the debates in ail their conven- 
tions — examine the speeches of the most zealous opposers of fede- 
ral authority — look at the amendments that were proposed ; they 
are all silent — not a syllable uttered, not a vote given, not a 
motion made to correct the explicit supremacy given to the laws of 
the Union over those of tlie States, or to show that implication, as 
is now contended, could defeat it. No, we have not erred ! The 
Constitution is still the object of our reverence, the bond of our 
Union, our defence in danger, the source of our prosperity in peace. 
It shall descend, as we have received it, uncorrupted by sophistical 
construction, to our posterity ; and the sacrifices of local interest, 
of State prejudices, of personal animosities, that were made to bring 
it into existence, will again be patriotically offered for its support. 



PRESIDENT JACKSON'S PROCLAMATION. 9 

The two remaining objections made by the ordinance to these 
laws are, that the sums intended to be raised by them are greater 
than are required, and that the proceeds will be unconstitutionally 
employed. 

The Constitution has given expressly to Congress the right of 
raising revenue and of determining the sum the public exigencies 
will require. The States have no control over the exercise of this 
right, other than that which results from the power of changing 
the representatives who abuse it, and thus procure redress. Con- 
gress may undoubtedly abuse this discretionary power, but the 
same may be said of others with which they are vested. Yet the 
discretion must exist somewhere. The Constitution has given it to 
the representatives of all the people, checked by the representa- 
tives of the States and by the executive power. The South Caro- 
lina construction gives it to the Legislature or tlie Convention of 
a single State, where neither the people of the different States, nor 
the States in their separate capacity, nor the chief magistrate 
elected by the people, have any representation. Which is the most 
discreet disposition of the power ? I do not ask you, fellow- 
citizens, which is the constitutional disposition — that instrument 
speaks a language not to be misunderstood. But if you were 
assembled in general convention, which would you think the safest 
depository of this discretionary power in the last resort ? Would 
you add a clause giving it to each of the States, or would you sanc- 
tion the Avise provisions already made by your Constitution ? If 
this should be the result of your deliberations, when providing for 
the future, are you — can you be — ready to risk all that we hold 
dear, to establish, for a temporary and local purpose, that which 
you must acknowledge to be destructive, and even absurd, as a 
general provision ? Carry out the consequences of this right vested 
in the different States, and you must perceive that the crisis your 
conduct presents at this day would recur whenever any law of the 
United States displeased any of the States, and that we should 
soon cease to be a nation. 

The ordinance, with the same knowledge of the future that cha- 
racterizes a former objection, tells you that the proceeds of the tax 
will be unconstitutionally applied. If this could be ascertained 
with certainty, the objection would, with more propriety, be 
reserved for the laws so applying the proceeds, but surely cannot 
be urged against the laws levying the duty. 

These are the allegations contained in the ordinance. Examine 
them seriously, my fellow-citizens — -judge for yourselves. I appeal 
to you to determine whether they are so clear, so convincing, as to 
leave no doubt of their correctness : and even if you should come 
to this conclusion, how far they justify the reckless, destructive 
course which you are directed to pursue. Review these objections, 
and the conclusions drawn from them once more. What are they? 



10 PRESIDENT JACKSON'S PROCLAMATION. 

Every law, then, for raising revenue, according to the South Caro- 
lina Ordinance, may be rightfully annulled, unless it be so framed 
as no law ever will or can be framed. Congress have a right to 
pass laws for raising revenue, and each State has a right to oppose 
their execution — two rights directly opposed to each other ; and 
yet is this absurdity supposed to be contained in an instrument 
drawn for the express purpose of avoiding collisions between the 
States and the General Government, by an assembly of the most 
enlightened statemen and purest patriots ever embodied for a simi- 
lar purpose. 

In vain have these sages declared that Congress shall have power 
to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises — in vain have 
they provided that they shall have power to pass laws which shall 
be necessary and proper to carry those powers into execution ; that 
those laAvs and that Constitution shall be the " supreme law of the 
land ; and that the judges in every State shall be bound thereby, 
anything in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary 
notwithaianding." In vain have the people of the several States 
solemnly sanctioned these provisions, made them their paramount 
law, and individually sworn to support them whenever they were 
called on to execute any office. Vain provisions ! ineffectual restric- 
tions ! vile profanation of oaths ! miserable mockery of legislation! 
if a bare majority of the voters in any one State may, on a real or 
supposed knowledge of the intent with which a law has been passed, 
declare themselves free from its operation — say here it gives too 
little, there too much, and operates unequally — here it suffers arti- 
cles to be free that ought to be taxed, there it taxes those that 
ought to be free — in this case the proceeds are intended to be 
applied to purposes which we do not approve ; in that the amount 
raised is more than is wanted. Congress, it is true, are invested 
by the Constitution with the right of deciding these questions 
according to their sound discretion. Congress is composed of 
the representatives of all the States and of all the people of 
all the States; but we, part of the people of one State, to 
whom the Constitution has given no power on the subject, from 
whom it has expressly taken it away — we, who have solemnly 
agreed that this Constitution shall be our law — tve, most of whom 
have sworn to support it — we, now abrogate this law, and swear, 
and force others to swear, that it shall not be obeyed — and wo do 
this, not because Congress have no light to pass such laws ; this 
we do not allege ; but because they have passed them with impro- 
per views. They are unconstitutional from the motives of those 
who passed them, which we can never with certainty know, from 
their unequal operation ; although it is impossible from the nature 
of things that they should be equal — and from the disposition which 
we presume may be made of their proceeds, although that disposi- 
tion has been declared. This is the plain meaning of the ordi- 



PRESIDENT JACKSON'S PROCLAMATION. 11 

nance in relation to laws which it abrogates for alleged unconsti- 
tutionality. But it does not stop there. It repeals, in express 
terms, an important part of the Constitution itself, and of laws 
passed to give it effect, which have never been alleged to be uncon- 
stitutional. The Constitution declares that the judicial powers of 
the United States extend to cases arising under the laws of the 
United States, and that such laws, the Constitution and treaties, 
shall be paramount to the State Constitutions and laws. The judi- 
ciary act prescribes the mode by which the case may be brought 
before a Court of the United States, by appeal, when a State tri- 
bunal shall decide against this provision of the Constitution. The 
ordinance declares there shall be no appeal ; makes the State law 
paramount to the Constitution and laws of the United States ; 
forces judges and jurors to swear that they wilj disregard their pro- 
visions ; and even makes it penal in a suitor to attempt relief by 
appeal. It further declares that it shall not be lawful for the 
autliorities of the United States, or of that State, to enforce the 
payment of duties imposed by the revenue laws within its limits. 

Here is a law of the United States, not even pretended to be 
unconstitutional, repealed by the authority of a small majority of 
the voters of a single State. Here is a provision of the Constitu- 
tion which is solemnly abrogated by the same authority. 

On such expositions and reasonings, the ordinance grounds not 
only an assertion of the right to annul the laws of which it com- 
plains, but to enforce it by a threat of seceding from the Union if 
any attempt is made to execute them. 

This right to secede is deduced from the nature of the Constitu- 
tion, which they say, is a compact between sovereign States, who 
have preserved their whole sovereignty, and therefore, are subject 
to no superior ; that because they made the compact, they can 
break it, when, in their opinion, it has been departed from by the 
other States. Fallacious as this course of reasoning is, it enlists 
State .pride, and finds advocates in the honest prejudices of those 
Avho have not studied the nature of our government sufficiently to 
see the radical error on which it rests. 

The people of the United States formed the Constitution, acting 
through the State Legislatures in making the compact, to meet and 
discuss its provisions, and acting in separate conventions when they 
ratified those provisions ; but the terms used in its construction, 
show it to be a government in which the people of all the States, 
collectively, are represented. We are one people in the choice of 
the President and A^ice-President. Here the States have no other 
agency than to direct the mode in which the votes shall be given. 
The candidates having the majority of all the votes, are chosen. 
The electors of a majority of the States may have given their votes 
for one candidate, and yet another may be chosen. The people 
then, and not the States, are represented in the executive branch. 



12 PRESIDENT JACKSON'S PROCLAMATION. 

In the House of Representatives there is this difference, that 
the people of one State do not, as in the case of President and Vice- 
President, all vote for the same officers. The people of all the 
States do not vote for all the members, each State electing ordy its 
own representatives. But this creates no material distinction. 
When chosen, thev are all representatives of the United States, 
not representatives of the particular State from •which they come. 
They are paid by the United States, not by the State ; nor are 
they accountable to it for any act done in the performance of their 
legislative functions ; and, however they may in practice, as it is 
their duty to do, consult and prefer the interests of their particular 
constituents when they come in conflict with any other partial or 
local interest, yet it is their first and highest duty, as representa- 
tives of the United States, to promote the general good. 

The Constitution of the United States, then, forms a government, 
not a league ; and whether it be formed by compact between the 
States, or in any other manner, its character is the same. It is a 
government in which all the people are represented, which operates 
directly on the people individually, not upon the States ; they 
retained all the power they did not grant. But each State having 
expressly parted with so many powers as to constitute jointly with 
the other States a single nation, cannot, from that*peviod, possess 
any right to secede, because such secession does not break a league, 
but destroys the unity of a nation, and any injury to that unity is 
not only a breach wliich would result from the contravention of a 
compact, but it is an offence against the whole Union. To say 
that any State may, at pleasure, secede from the Union, is to say 
that the United States are not a nation : because it would be a sole- 
cism to contend that any part of a nation might dissolve its con- 
nection Avith the other parts, to their injury or ruin, without com- 
mitting any offence. Secession, like any other revolutionary act, 
may be morally justified by the extremity of oppression ; but to 
call it a constitutional right is confounding the meaning of terms; 
and can only be done through gross error, or to deceive those who 
arc willing to assert a right, but would pause before they made a 
revolution, or incur the penalties consequent on a failure. 

Because the Union was formed by compact, it is said the parties 
to that compact may, when they feel themselves aggrieved, depart 
from it ; but it is precisely because it is a compact that they can- 
not. A compact is an agreement or binding obligation. It may, 
by its terms, have a sanction or penalty for its breach, or it may 
not. If it contains no sanction, it may be broken with no other 
consequence than moral guilt : if it have a sanction, then the breach 
incurs the designated or implied penalty. A league between inde- 
pendent nations, generally, has no sanction other than a moral one; 
or, if it should contain a penalty, as there is no common superior, 
it cannot be enforced. A government, on the contrary, always 



PRESIDENT JACKSON'S PROCLAMATION. 18 

has a sanction, express or implied ; and, in our case, it is both 
necessarily implied and expressly given. An attempt by force of 
arms to destroy a government, is an offence, by whatever means"^ 
the constitutional compact may have been formed ; and such 
government has the right, by the law of self-defence, to pass acts 
for punishing the offender, unless that right is modified, restrained, 
or resumed, by the constitutional act. In our system, although it 
is modified in the case of treason, yet authority is expressly given 
to pass all laws necessary to carry its powers into effect, and under 
this grant provision has been made for punishing acts which 
obstruct the due administration of the laws. 

It would seem superfluous to add anything to show the nature of 
that union which connects us ; but as erroneous opinions on this 
subject are the foundation of doctrines the most destructive to our 
peace, I must give some further development to my views on this 
subject. No one, fellow-citizens, has a higher reverence for the 
reserved rights of the States, than the magistrate Avho now 
addresses you. No one would make greater personal sacrifices, or 
official exertions, to defend them from violation ; but equal care 
must be taken to prevent on their part an improper interference 
with, or resumption of, the rights they have vested in the nation. 
The line has not been so distinctly drawn as to avoid doubts in 
some cases of the exercise of power. Men of the best intentions 
and soundest views may differ in their construction of some parts 
of the Constitution ; but there are others on which dispassionate 
reflection can leave no doubt. Of this nature appears to be the 
assumed right of secession. It rests, as we have seen, on the 
alleged undivided sovereignty of the States, and on their having 
formed in this sovereign capacity a compact which is called the 
Constitution, from which, because they made it, they have the right 
to secede. Both of these positions are erroneous, and some of the 
arguments to prove them so have been anticipated. 

The States, severally, have not retained their entire sovereignty. 
It has been shown that in becoming parts of a nation, not members 
of a league, they surrendered many of their essential parts of 
sovereignty. The right to make treaties — declare war — levy 
taxes — exercise exclusive judicial and legislative powers — were all 
of them functions of sovereign power. The States, then, for all 
these important purposes, were no longer sovereign. The alle- 
giance of their citizens was transferred in the first instance, to the 
government of the United States — they became American citizens, 
and owed obedience to the Constitution of the United States, and 
to laws made in conformity with the powers it vested in Congress. 
This last position has not been, and cannot be denied. How then 
can that State be said to be sovereign and independent, Avhose citi- 
zens owe obedience to laws not made by it, and whose magistrates 
arc sworn to disregard those laws when they come in conflict with 



14 PRESIDENT JACKSON'S PROCLAMATION. 

those passed by another ? What shows conclusively that the States 
cannot be said to have reserved an midivided sovereignty, is, that 
they expressly ceded the right to punish treason — not treason 
against their separate power — but treason against the United 
States. Treason is an offence against sovereignty, and sovereignty 
must reside with the power to punish it But the reserved rights 
of the States are not less sacred, because they have for their com- 
mon interest made the General Government the depository of these 
powers. 

Tlie unity of our political character (as has been shown for 
another purpose,) commenced with its very existence. Under the 
Royal Government we had no separate character — our opposition 
to its oppressions began as United Colonies. We were the 
United States under the Confederation, and the name was per- 
petuated, and the Union rendered more perfect, by the Federal 
Constitution. In none of these stages did we consider ourselves 
in any other light than as forming one nation. Treaties and alli- 
ances were made in the name of all. Troops were raised for the 
joint defence. How, then, with all these proofs that, under all 
changes of our position, we had, for designated purposes and with 
defined powers, created national governments — how is it, that the 
most perfect of those several modes of Union should now.be con- 
sidered as a mere league, that may be dissolved at pleasure ? It 
is from an abuse of terms. Compact is used as synonymous Avit 
league, although the true term is not employed, because it would 
at once show the fallacy of the reasoning. It would not do to s'a»y 
that our Constitution was only a league, but, it is labored to prove 
it a compact (which in one sense it is,) and then to argue that as a 
league is a compact, every compact between nations must, of course, 
be a league, and that from such an engagement every sovereign 
power has a right to recede. But it has been shown, that in this 
sense the States are not sovereign, and that even if they were, and 
the national Constitution had been formed by compact, there would 
be no right in any one State to exonerate itself from its obligations. 

So obvious are the reasons which forbid this secession, that it is 
necessary only to allude to them. The Union was formed for the 
benefit of all. It was produced by mutual sacrifices of interests 
and opinions. Can those sacrifices be recalled ? Can the States 
who magnanimously surrendered their title to the territories of the 
West, recall the grant ? Will the inhabitant's of the inland States 
agree to pay the duties that may be imposed Avithout their assent 
by those on the Atlantic or the Gulf, for their own benefit ? Shall 
there be a free port in one State, and onerous duties in another ? 
No one believes that any right exists in a single State to involve all 
the others in these and countless other evils, contrary to engage- 
ments solemnly made. Every one must see that the other States, 
in self-defence, must oppose it at all hazards. 



PRESIDENT Jackson's proclamation. 15 

These are the alternatives that are presented by the Convention: 
a repeal of all the acts for raising revenue, leaving the Govern- 
ment without the means of support, or an acquiescence in the disso- 
lution of our Union by the secession of one of its raeinbers. When 
the first was proposed, it was known that it could not be listened 
to for a moment. It was known, if force was applied to oppose the 
execution of the laws, that is must be repelled by force — that Con- 
gress could not, without involving itself in disgrace, and the coun- 
try in ruin, accede to the proposition ; and yet, if this is not done 
in a given day, or if any attempt is made to execute the laws, the 
State is, by the ordinance, declared to be out of the Union. Tlie 
majority of a Convention assembled for the purpose, have dictated 
these terms, or rather this rejection of all terms, in the name of the 
people of South Carolina. It is true, that the Governor of the 
State speaks of the submission of their grievances to a Convention 
of all the States ; which, he says, they " sincerely and anxiously 
seek and desire." Yet this obvious and constitutional mode of 
obtaining the sense of the other States, on the construction of the 
federal compact, and amending it, if necessary, has never been 
attempted by those who have urged the State on to this destructive 
measure. The^ State might have proposed the call for a general 
Convention, to the other States, and Congress, if a sufficient num- 
ber of them concurred, must have called it. But the first magis- 
trate of South Carolina, when he expressed a hope that, " on a 
review by Congress and the functionaries of the general govern- 
ment of the merits of the controversy," such a Convention will be 
accorded to them, must have known that neither Congress nor 
any functionary of the General Government has authority to call 
such a Convention, unless it be demanded by two-thirds of the 
States. This suggestion, then, is another instance of the reckless 
inattention to the provisions of the Constitution with which this 
crisis has been madly hurried on; or of the attempt to persuade 
the people that a constitutional remedy had been sought and refused. 
If the Legislature of South Carolina " anxiously desire" a Gene- 
ral Convention to consider their complaints, why have they not 
made application for it ia the way the Constitution points out ? 
The assertion that they " earnestly seek" it, is completely nega- 
tived by the omission. 

This then, is the position in which wo stand. A small majority 
of the citizens of one State in the Union have elected delegates to 
a State Convention : that Convention has ordained that all the 
revenue laws of the United States must be repealed, or that they 
are no longer a member of the Union. The Governor of that State 
has recommended to the Legislature the raising of an army to carry 
the secession into eifect, and that he may be empowered to give 
clearances to vessels in the name of the State. No act of violent 
opposition to the laws has yet been committed, but such a state of 



16 PRESIDENT JACKSON'S PROCLAMATION. 

things is hourly apprehended, and it is the intent of this instrument 
to PROCLAIM not only that the duty imposed on me by the Consti- 
tution " to take care that the laws be faithfully executed," shgll 
be performed to the extent of the powers already vested in me by 
law, or of such others as the wisdom of Congress shall devise and 
intrust to me for that purpose, but to warn the citizens of South 
Carolina, Avho have been deluded into an opposition to the laws, 
of the danger they will incur by obedience to the illegal and 
disorganizing ordinance of the Convention, — to exhort those who 
have refused to support it to persevere in their determination to 
uphold the Constitution and laws of their country, and to point out 
to all, the perilous situation into which the good people of that State 
have been led, — and that the course they are urged to pursue is one 
of ruin and disgrace to the very State whose rights they aflect to 
support. 

Fellow-citizens of my native State! let me not only admonish 
you, as the first magistrate of our common country, not to incur 
the penalty of its laws, but use the influence that a father would 
over his children whom he saw rushing to certain ruin. In that 
paternal language, with that paternal feeling, let me tell you, my 
countryri^en, that you are deluded by men who are either deceived 
themselves, or wish to deceive you. Mark under what pretences 
you have been led on to the brink of insurrection and treason, on 
which you stand ! First, a diminution of the value of your staple 
commodity, lowered by over production in other quarters, and the 
consequent diminution in the value of your lands, were the sole 
effect of the tariff laws. The effect of those laws was confessedly 
injurious, but the evil was greatly exaggerated by the unfouncTed 
theory joti were taught to believe, that its burdens were in propor- 
tion to your exports, not to your consumption of imported articles. 
Your pride was roused by the assertion that a submission to those 
laws was a state of vassalage, and that resistance to them was equal, 
in patriotic merit, to the opposition our fathers offered to the 
oppressive laws of Great Britain. You were told that this opposi- 
tion might be peaceably — might be constitutionally made — that 
3^ou might enjoy all the advantages of the Union and bear none of 
its burdens. 

Eloquent appeals to your passions, to your State pride, to your 
native courage, to your sense of real injury, were used to prepare 
you for the period when the mask Avhich concealed the hideous fea- 
tures of disunion should be taken off. It fell, and you were made 
to look with complacency on objects which, not long since, you 
would have regarded with horror. Look back at the arts which 
have brought you to this state — look forward to the consequences to 
which it must inevitably lead. Look back to what was first told 
you as an inducement to enter into this dangerous course. The 
great political truth was repeated to you, that you had the revolu- 



PRESIDENT JACKSON'S PROCLAMATION. 17 

tionary right of resisting all laws that were palpably unconstitu- 
tional, and intolerably oppressive — it was added that the right to 
nullify a law rested on the same principle, but that it was a peace- 
able remedy ! This character which was given to it, made you receive 
with too much confidence the assertions that were made of the 
unconstitutionality of the law, and its oppressive effects. Mark, 
njy fellow-citizens, that, by the admission of your leaders, the 
unconstitutionality must be palpable, or it will not justify either 
resistance or nullification ! What is the meaning of the word pal- 
pable, in the sense in which it is here used ? — that which is nppa- 
rent to every one ; that which no man of ordinary intellect will fail 
to perceive. Is the unconstitutionality of these laws of that descrip- 
tion ? Let those among your leaders who once approved and advo- 
cated the principle of protective duties, answer the question ; and 
let them choose whether they will be considered as incapable, then, 
of perceiving that which must have been apparent to every man of 
common understanding, or as imposing upon your confidence, and 
endeavoring to mislead you now. 

In either case, they are unsafe guides in the perilous path they 
urge you to tread. Ponder well on this circumstance, and you will 
know how to appreciate the exaggerated language they address to 
you. They are not champions of liberty, emulating the fame of 
our revolutionary fathers ; nor are you an oppressed people, con- 
tending, as they repeat to you, against worse than colonial vas- 
salage. 

You are free members of a flourishing and happy Union. There 
is no settled design to oppress you. You have indeed felt the 
unequal operation of laws which may have been unwisely, not 
unconstitutionally passed, but that inequality must necessarily be 
removed. At the very moment when you were madly urged on the 
unfortunate course you have begun, a change in public opinion had 
commenced. The nearly approaching payment of the public debt, 
and the consequent necessity of a diminution of duties, had already 
produced a considerble reduction, and that too on some articles of 
general consumption in your State. The importance of this change 
was understood, and you were authoritatively told that no further 
alleviation of your burdens was to be expected, at the very time 
Avhen the condition of the country imperiously demanded such a 
modification of the duties as should reduce them to a just and equi- 
table scale. But, as if apprehensive of the eifect of this change, 
in allaying your discontents, you were precipitated into the fearful 
state in which you now find yourselves. 

I have urged you to look back to the means that were used to 
hurry you on to the position you have now assumed, and forward 
to the consequences it will produce. Something more is necessar}'. 
Contemplate the condition of that country of which you still form 
an important part ! — consider its government uniting in one bond 



18 PRESIDENT Jackson's proclamation. 

of common interest and general protection so many different 
States — giving to all their inhabitants the proud title of American 
citizens — protecting their commerce — securing their literature and 
their arts — facilitating their intercommunication — defending their 
frontiers — and making their names respected in the remotest parts 
of the earth ! Consider the extent of its territory, its increasing 
and happy population, its advance in arts, which render life agree- 
able, and the sciences which elevate the mind ! See education spread- 
ing the lights of religion, humanity, and general information, into 
every cottage in this wide extent of our Territories and States ? 
Behold it as the asylum where the wretched and oppressed find a 
refuge and support ! Look on this picture of happiness and honor, 
and say. We, too, are citizens of America — Carolina is one of 
these proud States ; her arms have defended — her best blood has 
cemented this happy Union ! And then add, if you can, without 
horror and* remorse, This happy Union we will dissolve — this pic- 
ture of peace and prosperity we will deface — this free intercourse 
we will interrupt — these fertile fields we will deluge witli blood — 
the protection of that glorious flag we renounce — the very name of 
Americans we discard. And for what, mistaken men ! for what 
do you throw away these inestimable blessings — for what woukl you 
exchange your share in the advantages and honor of the Union ? 
For the dream of a separate independence — a dream interrupted 
by bloody conflicts with your neighbors, and a vile dependence on 
foreign power. If your leaders covdd succeed in establishing a 
separation, what would be your situation? Are you united at 
home — are you free from the apprehension of civil discord, with all 
its fearful consequences ? Do our neighboring republics, every day 
suffering som.e new revolution or contending with some new insur- 
rection — do they excite your envy ? But the dictates of a high 
duty oblige me solemnly to announce that you cannot succeed. 
The laAVS of the United States must be executed. I have no dis- 
cretionary power on the subject — my duty is emphatically pro- 
nounced in the Constitution. Those who told you that you might 
peaceably prevent their execution, deceived you — they could not 
have been deceived themselves. They know that a forcible oppo- 
sition could alone prevent the execution of the laws, and tliey 
know that such opposition must be repelled. Their object is dis- 
union : but be not deceived by names : disunion, by armed force, 
is treason. Are you really ready to incur its guilt ? If you are, 
on the heads of the instigators of the act be the dreadful conse- 
quences — on their heads be the dishonor, but on yours may fall the 
punishment — on your unhappy State will inevitably fall all the 
evils of the conflict you force upon tbe Government of your coun- 
try. It cannot accede to the mad project of disunion, of which 
you would be the first victims — its first magistrate cannot, if he 
would, avoid the performance of his duty — the consequence must 



I'KEsiDKNT Jackson's proclamation. 19 

he fearful for you, distressing to your fellow-citizens here, and to 
the friends of good government throughout the world. Its enemies 
have beheld our ])rosperitY with a vexation they could not conceal. 
It was a standing refutation of their slavish doctrines, and they 
will point to our discord with the triumph of malignant joy. It is 
yet in your power to disappoint them. There is yet time to show 
that the descendants of the Pinekneys, the Sumpters, the Rut- 
ledges, and of the thousand other names which adoru the pages of 
your revolutionary history, Avill not abandon that Union, to sup- 
port which so many of them fought and bled and died. I adjure 
you, a> you honor their memory — as you love tlie cause of free- 
dom, to which they dedicated their lives — as you prize the peace of 
your country, the lives of its best citizens, and your own fair fame, 
to retrace your steps. Snatch from the archives of your State the 
disorganizing edict of its Convention — bid its members to reas- 
semble and promulgate the decided expressions of your will to 
remain in the path which alone can conduct you to safety, pros- 
perity, and honor — tell them that, compared to disunion, all other 
evils are light, Ijecause that brings with it an accumulation of all — 
declare that you will never take the field unless the star-spangled 
banner of your country shall float over you — that you will not be 
stigmatized when dead, and dishonored and scorned Avhile you live, 
as the authors'of the first attack on the Constitution of your coun- 
try ! Its destroyers you cannot be. You may disturb its peace — 
you may interrupt the course of its prosperity — you may cloud its 
reputation for stability — but its tranquillity will be restored, its 
prosperity will return, and the stain upon its national character 
will be transferred and remain an eternal blot on the memory of 
those who caused the disorder. 

Fellow-citizens of the United States ! The threat of unhallowed 
disunion, the names of those (once respected) by whom it was 
uttered, the array of military force to support it, denote the 
approach of a crisis in our affairs, on which the continuance of our 
unexampled prosperity, our political existence, and perhaps that of 
all free governments, may depend. The conjuncture demanded 
a free, a full, and explicit enunciation, not only of my intentions, 
but of my principles of action ; and as the claim was asserted of a 
right by a State to annul the laws of the Union, and even to secede 
from it at pleasure, a frank exposition of my opinions, in relation 
to the origin and form of our government, end the construction I 
give to the instrument by which it was created, seemed to be pro- 
per. Having the fullest confidence in the justness of the legal and 
constitutional opinion of my duties which has been expressed, I 
rely with equal confidence on your undivided support in my deter- 
mination to execute the laws — to preserve the Union by all consti- 
tutional means — to arrest, if possible, by moderate, but firm mea- 
sures, the necessity of a recourse to force : and if it be the will of 



20 PRESIDENT JACKSON'S PROCLAMATION. 




Heaven, that the recurrence of its primes iijli|f,^,^,^,^,y„ ^^ congress 
shedding of a brother's blood should fall i 
not called down by any offensive act on 
'States. 

Fellow-citzens ! the momentous case i 02''j'"g^'^'"'|"™iM^ 

undivided support of your Government depenas mv v*v^ - ^ 

great question it involves, whether your sacred Union will be pre- 
served, and tlxc blessing it secures to us, as one people, shall be 
perpetuated. No one can doubt, that the unanimity with which 
that decision will be expressed will be such as to inspire new con- 
fidence in republican institutions, and that the prudence, the wis- 
dom, and the courage, which it will bring to their defence, will 
transmit them unimpaired and invigorated to our children. 

May the great Ruler of Nations grant, that the signal blessings 
with which he has favored ours may not, by the madness of party, 
or personal ambition, be disregarded and lost ; and may his wise 
providence bring those who have produced this crisis to see the 
folly, before they feel the misery of civil strife : and inspire a 
returning veneration for that Union which, if we may dare to pene- 
trate his designs, he has chosen as the only means of attaining the - 
high destinies to which we may reasonably aspire. 

ANDREW JACKSON. 



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